


Third Time is the Charm

by Kira_K



Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mob, Friendship, Gen, Timeline What Timeline, Unrealistic mobsters, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 16:04:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5671945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_K/pseuds/Kira_K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mob!AU White Collar fic where Peter Burke is a soft-hearthed mobster and Neal just keeps running into him through no fault of his. Neal is really (not) innocent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third Time is the Charm

**Author's Note:**

> I really love mobster!aus but I couldn't yet find the perfect WC mobster au fic. So I wrote one, maybe, it will be the perfect fic for somebody else. :D

Neal is in New York because of Kate. She was a surprise, a lightning bolt against his heart. She is beautiful and she loves him and he loves her, and they could do anything, they could go anywhere in the world but she wants to go to New York. So they go back. 

Neal finds Mozzie again and Kate is against his side and Neal never thought he would be this happy. Then Kate surprises him. Like a knife in his back, nicking lungs and spine and heart – and Neal is close enough to see the face of the man who drags her away. (She is not protesting.) Neal is not stupid – but he wants her back and he wants at least a proper break-up fight if they must part ways. 

Kate leaves without a backwards glance and Neal is left in New York without a purpose, a girlfriend, or most of his cash. 

*

Peter Burke is not the name you are warned off. 

*

Nobody knows who is the power behind the throne; who will run New York City once Hughes retires. There are rumours about a favoured son (adopted, because Hughes had a childless marriage); rumours about there being a contest, like tales of old. 

Kate’s kidnapping/leaving leaves Neal curious. He studies the organized crime syndicates and he knows it was probably one of Hughes’ who seduced Kate away. So he is curious. (And jealous, and hurt, and somewhat broken, but Neal tries to never be too honest.) 

*

When asked, Mozzie just shrugs and slinks away; he is a criminal but he is not part of any organization. He would rather be left alone to plot and plan. 

Neal gets impatient. It’s nobody’s fault but his own; when he decides to break into the warehouse where, it is rumoured, Hughes keeps his money and moonshine. 

*

The woman is a surprise. She is dark-skinned, dressed in trousers, and slams Neal to the ground without breaking a sweet. The gun she holds doesn’t shake. Neal does. 

“Who are you?” she asks, tossing him a pair of handcuffs. Neal watches the muzzle as he snaps them around his own wrists and waits for the bullet that will end everything. “Who are you working for?”

“Nobody,” Neal replies. He tries a smile and the woman scowls. He speaks, fast. “I’m not working for anybody, I was just curious…”

“Y’know how that ends for cats…” she drawls but lowers the gun. It isn’t yet holstered but Neal feels a momentary relief. 

“Diana?” The new voice comes from the side, a walled off part of the warehouse which serves as an office. “Who are you talking to?” The steps are heavy but unhurried. The man, when he emerges, is dressed in a cheap suit, his tie an affront of good taste and doesn’t have a hat. The line of his coat breaks where he keeps his gun. His hands are rough but inkstained and Neal tries to place his face among the known associates of Hughes. He draws up a blank. Maybe just a lackey then. 

Diana gestures towards Neal and the man frowns. Then he steps close and frisks him with quick, efficient movements without leaving out the crotch area. So, not an amateur. “Who are you?” he asks when nothing worse turns up than lockpicks and a few dollars. 

“Just a curious nobody,” Neal tries a smile and gets a good-natured snort in answer. 

“Yeah, I know that,” the man says then hauls Neal to a chair by the links of the handcuffs. It digs into his skin but it is better than being marched by the scruff of his neck. “Your name, buddy?”

Neal considers lying. He also wants to leave with all of his bones and limbs intact, so in the end he replies with the name he uses these days and which would gather a bit of leeway. “Caffrey.” He is a known thief and the worst thing he could do is to pretend to be anything else. There is honour among thieves or at least he likes to think so, especially when that honour might mean his continued health.

“Neal Caffrey?” Diana asks with surprise. So the gamble paid off, and she knows him. There is a strange sort of respect in her eyes for a moment before she forces herself to be professional once more. Neal glances at her, notes that the pistol was put away sometimes in the last few minutes, then drags his attention back to the man who just shakes his head slowly at the name. 

“You either lie, and I don’t appreciate that,” he says and taps a finger against Neal’s cuffed hand but doesn’t yet use any violence, “or you tell the truth and in that case you’re way out of your league. What are you doing here?”

“I was curious,” Neal repeats because that’s his only defence, and also the truth. He smiles as well, innocently and scared, and he doesn’t have to fake the latter too much. “Rumour has it, there are some paintings here.” This is a lie. Hughes keeps his paintings at the walls of his office, and at his home where he regularly entertains the Commissioner and the DA of New York. 

“You missed the address then,” the man says and shakes his head. The laugh is almost impossible to catch but it is there. “The paintings are in the next warehouse with the Russians.” 

*

The next time he manages to steal a bit of the moonshine from their warehouse and he feels accomplished. He shares a bottle or two with Mozzie before finding a fence who sells it back to Hughes, via Burke, without revealing his involvement. Neal thinks that the empty hole that was once Kate starts to close as he thumbs through the wad of dollars in a half-drunk haze. 

The note he finds among them leaves him chilled and sober at once. It is the size of a bill, coloured the same to be hidden at first glance. The words, written by a black pen, in a sharp, angular way, are mildly threatening. “Once is a mistake. Don’t let there be a second time.” 

*

Neal finds himself hit over the head by a skillet when he decides to break into a suburban house that just happens to be Peter Burke’s. The woman is a surprise. (Neal thinks this is a weird coincidence and refuses to call it karma.) With his senses scrambled it is easy to allow the woman to cuff him (why would a housewife have a pair of handcuffs at hand?) and shove him onto the couch. The dog – a pet rather than a guard – snuffles against Neal’s calf and Neal feels oddly comforted. He loses some time when he closes his eyes against the throbbing of his head. 

When he opens them he blinks at Peter Burke, the mysterious man from the warehouse. Neal swallows, allows his fear to be seen, to be mistaken as panic. 

Peter scowls and drops a bottle of aspirin on Neal’s lap with a grunt. Neal dry-swallows a couple of pills and only belatedly realizes that the cuffs don’t really hinder his movements. Oops. Burke scowls, takes away the pills and relocks his hands because he is apparently the kind of criminal who likes his prisoners bound but not in pain. 

“You’re like a bad penny, Caffrey,” Burke murmurs and pulls the armchair closer to the couch. “What should I do with you?”

This meeting is already better, or maybe worse, than their previous one. Neal is not yet sure. He wasn’t yet hit by Burke, only by the woman and the iron skillet. It might be worse. But he is pitiful like this, and Burke seems to react to that. He must be really some kind of lackey then for nobody would rise high with a bleeding heart in any organization. “Nothing?” Neal offers, because his head throbs despite the pills, he is cuffed once more and didn’t have the time to palm anything to pick the lock with unseen, and it seems to amuse Peter. Which is his best bet, seeing, he just broke into the man’s house. Even if it wasn’t quite a mistake that he picked this house out of the row of similar suburban houses. He might have been a bit more curious than it is good for his health. 

“You’re quite lucky,” Burke says finally, and his fingers close around the metal on Neal’s wrist. Neal stills and when no pain comes, he continues to breathe evenly. “My wife is unhurt. My dog is unhurt. My door needs a new lock but it that’s not entirely your fault.” 

*

Neal meets Elizabeth again in a small, stylish coffee shop and buys her a pastry. She accepts and pats his face, somewhat motherly, somewhat condescendingly. Neal is oddly disturbed by enjoying the affection that has nothing to do with lust. Elizabeth chats at him about her work of organizing parties for other bored housewives, about how Peter is a really nice person, and how she wishes there were less bloodstains to wash out of his clothes. (Her eyes twinkle and she laughs at Neal’s stricken expression but refuses to confirm it as a joke.)

Neal steals her bracelet when they part (it is a cheap, thin link of silver that does nothing to accent her beauty) and gifts it to his landlady. June appreciates it and it looks wonderful against her dark skin. 

*

The next time is less pleasant. Neal comes home from a long day of intelligence gathering and Peter Burke is sitting in his living room. He looks cranky and Neal really wants to leave but before he could turn and run Diana locks the door behind him. Neal really wants to know how come that a woman, and a dark-skinned at that, could be a high enough member of any organization to be allowed to carry a gun. 

The suit Peter wears is sharp. Nothing like the cheap monstrosities from before that hid the width of his shoulders and the muscles of his arms. This one looks tailored to his form, to show off the danger Burke had hidden before. His shirt is white and ironed, his tie a sombre piece with its dark-red colour that resembles dried blood. 

“I told you,” Burke says when Neal is showed into his armchair by Diana’s unbreakable grip, “that once is a mistake. Twice is a habit.” 

“Isn’t it supposed to be ‘Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a habit’?” Neal asks because he is not an uncultured cod like Burke. And because he cannot help it but be chilled by the knowledge that Burke left the note among the money and Burke knew he was the thief when he went to broke into his house. And misdirecting the conversation seems like the best course of action at this point. 

“Maybe,” Burke allows it with a small headshake. “but taking my wife’s jewellery was one step too far.”

“Sorry, Peter, but it looked really ugly on her.” 

Burke’s face twitches and Neal wonders when will they move on to hurting him. There is some kind of vicious feeling in his chest that makes him lash out, that makes attacking Hughes people like a good idea, despite its insanity.

“What I want to know,” Burke continues after a calming breath which could be mistaken as a sigh, “is why? What did we ever do to you?”

Neal doesn’t reply. Kate left without looking back, without trying to fight. It was her decision but not one she came to out of her own. Diana’s hands on his shoulder bring Neal’s attention back to the present. There is a small knock on his door before June comes in, her new bracelet on her left. She brought coffee and wine and acts as if nothing is wrong with there being two armed mobsters in her home. Neal swallows when Burke’s eyes narrow on her but Diana’s hold is strong and Neal is forced to remain sitting even as Burke reaches out to touch the silver link. 

“Ma’am,” Burke says, charming, respectful, and oddly awkward, like nothing of the hard Mafioso he had been not five minutes earlier, “this looks like my wife’s.” 

“What a coincidence,” June says and gently pulls her hand back. Burke lets her. “Silver doesn’t really work on pale skin. Please, give my regards to Reese.” 

Neal blinks and settles back down and Diana slowly lets up the pressure. 

“Of course,” Burke says, awkwardness still en large. June leaves, bracelet still on her wrist, leaving the heavenly smelling coffee and the glasses of dark red wine on the table and silence behind her. Diana breaks the standstill by reaching for a coffee. Burke mirrors her and Neal, after an inner shrug, reaches for the wine. He needs the alcohol to deal with Burke. 

“Neal,” Peter says, more friendly than before, after a swallow and a pleased noise, “please, stop making trouble for us. If you wanted our attention then you have it. Now what do you want?”

“I want Kate,” Neal blurts out and glares at Burke and at the glass he holds. He shouldn’t have said that. Time for damage control he thinks but what leaves his mouth is the truth: “I want my girlfriend back who was kidnapped by one of you, and I want my money back she took with her when she was taken.”

Burke seems surprised. “We don’t kidnap--” he breaks off when Diana snorts, inelegantly. “Well, we didn’t kidnap your girlfriend, Mr Caffrey. Kate Moreau was discouraged from staying in New York with only words and no violence after she stumbled upon some secrets.”

“Yeah, I don’t believe you,” Neal replies and swallows down more wine. It is pretty good. “She didn’t call.” 

*

The next couple of hours are a whirlwind. Peter finds out where did Kate go, he calls her, Neal speaks to her. She breaks his heart. It is not a large surprise but it still hurts. 

There is more wine and then something stronger, and Neal finds himself passed out on Diana’s shoulder, blabbing about Kate and her lying, beautiful eyes. Diana pats his head and keeps refilling his glass. 

*

When Neal is awake once more his head is throbbing and Peter Burke watches him with a quiet, amused smile and a bottle of aspirin. His hands are not cuffed this time and there is a glass of water to help the pills go down. Neal offers a charming smile but something goes wrong with the expression because Burke winces. 

“I do expect you won’t make more trouble for us,” Peter says, quietly like the soft-hearted person he is, and briefly touches Neal’s shoulder as he leaves the room. “Good bye, Neal.” 

*

Elizabeth is upset with him only as long as it takes Neal to present her new, gold bracelet. She is in a small diner, awaiting her husband, and Neal just happened to follow, stalk, find her here. The golden jewellery does suit her better than the silver did and she smiles at him long enough that Neal forgets about the approaching danger. Peter kisses her lightly then shakes his head at Neal before sitting down next to him, boxing him in for now.

“You’re like a bad penny, Caffrey,” Burke murmurs, “always showing up.”

“I’d say, I’m a charming and handsome hundred dollar bill and you’re lucky that I show up as often as I do.”

“Hm, third time is the charm?” Peter adds wryly before allowing a smile to grace his features. It makes him handsome, and charming, and Neal suddenly understands what Elizabeth sees in him. “I think I’ll introduce you to Reese. He likes getting to know interesting people.” 

“Reese?” Neal frowns. There is only one Reese he sort-of knows, and it is--

“Hughes. My boss.” 

“Uh-. No, thank you?” It is worth a try. 

“Don’t worry. I like you, so he will as well.” There is a confidence in Burke’s words, much more than a soft-hearted lackey would have about his influence with their boss. Neal swallows, looks at Peter Burke once more and realizes what he ignored so far. Burke is smart. Burke called his boss by his first name, not without respect but with a familiarity. Burke is Hughes’ intended heir. 

Neal is so screwed, he doesn’t know where to start; but he is excited as well. The hole Kate had left seems to be smaller as Peter laughs at his expression, as Elizabeth gently pats his hand, as Neal realizes he somehow became part of Hughes’ and Peter’s organization. 

 

~end~

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos make my day. If there are typos, feel free to point them out.
> 
> This fic was planned as a one-shot; but I like the AU so it is possible that there will be more. However, if I do write more, it won't be quick. Thank you for your understanding.


End file.
